Todoist vs Tasks.md
Tasks.md is a narrower, self-hosted alternative centered on kanban-style boards and Markdown files, while Todoist is the better-documented choice for natural-language capture, recurring schedules, calendar planning, filters, templates, integrations, and shared team spaces. Choose Tasks.md when deployment control and filesystem-readable tasks matter more than broad workflow coverage; choose Todoist when its scheduling
Decision guide
The practical reasons to choose either option, based on documented capabilities.
Choose Tasks.md if
- Individuals or small teams wanting a self-hosted task board backed by Markdown files
- Users who organize work as cards, lanes, and tags
- Administrators able to operate a Docker container and persistent volumes
Stay with Todoist if
- You rely on natural-language task entry or recurring tasks; neither is documented for Tasks.md
- You need Today, Upcoming, calendar, or custom-filter views; equivalent coverage is not documented
- You depend on shared team spaces, integrations, or reusable templates; these are not documented for Tasks.md and the project intentionally limits its scope
Deployment and operations
Tasks.md is an MIT-licensed, self-hostable JavaScript application. It can run from a single Docker image or Docker Compose with persistent task and configuration volumes; source installation requires separate frontend and backend processes using npm. Reverse-proxy subpaths are supported, although the PWA does not work when BASE_PATH is set to anything other than "/". Operators are responsible for hosting and upgrades. The maintainers describe it as a low-maintenance project with intentionally
Migration considerations
No Todoist import or compatibility path is documented, so migration may require reconstructing tasks in Tasks.md's directory-and-Markdown-file model. Existing Tasks.md 2.x deployments require a separate migration procedure when upgrading to 3.x.
Feature fit
What Tasks.md covers
- Task creation and completion
- Project-level task grouping
- Board-style work organization
- Due-date handling
What’s different or missing
- Natural-language task capture
- Recurring task schedules
- Today and Upcoming views
- Calendar-based weekly planning
- Custom task filters
- Shared team task spaces
- Task and project templates
- Documented service integrations
Project snapshot
- GitHub stars
- 2,180
- Contributors
- 17
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last commit
- Mar 8, 2026
- Latest release
- Mar 8, 2026
Categories: Team Communication, Calendars & Scheduling, Project Management, Task Management
Sources and editorial review13 linked sources
Public documentation supports this comparison. Automation assists collection and classification; editorial standards and corrections remain the responsibility of Kris.
A self-hosted, Markdown file based task management board
repository description · github.comCreate cards, lanes and tags in a modern and responsive interface;
readme · github.comWrite cards as Markdown files;
readme · github.comEvery lane you add within the app is a directory in your filesystem and every task is file.
readme · github.comEasy to install with a single Docker image;
readme · github.comCan be installed as PWA.
readme · github.comA self-hosted, Markdown file based task management board
verdict · github.comCreate cards, lanes and tags in a modern and responsive interface;
shared feature · github.comEasy to install with a single Docker image;
deployment · github.comBe aware that PWA does not work when BASE_PATH is set with anything other than "/";
deployment · github.comIf you're running a docker container with version 2 of Tasks.md and want to upgrade it to version 3, please follow up [those instructions](/migration-guide.md) as it requires some tweeks for it to work properly.
migration · github.comEvery lane you add within the app is a directory in your filesystem and every task is file.
migration · github.comThe scope of features and support are purposefully kept narrow to ensure longer term maintenance is viable.
consider original · github.com
